“Covid-working”: what to keep and what to leave? Evidence from an Italian company

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to explore the extent to which Covid-19 has challenged work habits and outcomes. The authors argue that after the lockdown period workers have been experiencing a new work mode called “Covid-working”. The aim is to provide a first interpretation of this phaenomenon and elaborate on future real estate strategies and workplace policies based on this experience. Design/methodology/approach Using survey data, this research analyses Covid-working in a large-sized company in Italy. The survey was answered by 90 employees and addresses three domains: locations of work; a comparison between work-from-home (WFH) and work from the office; and outcomes of Covid-working vs office-working. Findings With Covid-working, the workers of the case company drastically changed their traditional work from the office approach to pure WFH. While this abrupt switch might generate difficulties in adaptation, this working practice was generally appreciated by this company’s workers. Positive and negative outcomes of Covid-working confirm previous studies on remote working. Recommendations on multi-location of work, new value for the headquarters and diversity empowerment open up avenues for future real estate strategies. Originality/value Observations on Covid-working are still limited and mainly appear on grey literature, due to the newness of this phaenomenon. Empirical studies such as the proposed one can increase companies’ awareness of the positive and negative outcomes of this experience and support their future workplace strategies.

Flexible workspaces within corporate real estate

“…Anticipating the future of flexible workspaces within corporate real estate is challenging. However, one of the main consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the overall success of working from home (Workplace Evolutionaries, 2020;Leesman, 2021;Marzban et al, 2021;Naor et al, 2021;Tagliaro and Migliore, 2021), which has led companies to rethink the amount of office space they occupy and the purpose of it (Marzban et al, 2021;Naor et al, 2021;Tagliaro and Migliore, 2021). From the literature search, only four studies were focused on the impact of COVID-19 in the workspace.…”

“…Employees might choose to work in such because they do not want to commute to the main office or might not want to work from home due to distractions with family or lack of appropriate equipment or technological infrastructure (Tagliaro and Migliore, 2021).…”

“…▪ Hybrid working: in this type of flexible working, employees can choose the number of days to work in the office and elsewhere (e.g., home or third places) (Marzban et al, 2021;Naor et al, 2021;Tagliaro and Migliore, 2021), which arguably improves their work-life balance (Pataki-Bitt and Kapusy, 2021)…”

“…▪ Collaborative and safe headquarters: the office remains relevant for collaborative activities and serendipitous encounters. The layout, however, would include several environments (e.g., meeting room and break areas) (Tagliaro and Migliore, 2021) and clear surfaces to emanate the feeling of cleanness, along with enhanced workspace hygiene standards (Pataki-Bitt and Kapusy, 2021).…”

Investigating the Perceived Comparison of Work from Office vs. Work from Home during Covid-19: An Empirical Study

“…Comparison of outcomes: work from home vs work from office. The study by Tagliaro and Migliore (2021) explored the effects of the Covid-19 on work habits and outcomes of working from home during Covid 19 vs office-working. The result of the study indicates that the quality of the individual and teamwork has improved.…”